doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com duck opening 2013

Today (16/3) was our duck opening here in Victoria
I went out to a brackish drainage swamp on private property there were a few birds on there but they headed off to a nearby river after maybe 30 minutes of shooting
The pictured ducks are Grey Teal the gun is a Lefever H grade
as with most places now the use of non toxic shot is required but in Victoria muzzle loading,damascas and twist steel barrel guns are exempt from the requirement so lead shot can still be used
I load up low pressure loads for my Lefever and use it a bit for my duck hunting it is built like a tank and it is a heavy gun just on 8ib's still doing what it was made for 100 years later thanks Uncle Dan!!!

Today was one of the best day's shooting I've ever had; bagged out, with grey and chestnut teal, pink-ear and black duck and a couple of blue-winged shovellers; a couple will probably be mounted, at the behest of the minister for war and finance. Shot over a small private swamp, a stretch of the Mt Emu creekline and a medium sized dam/lake as the guest of a soldier-settler extended family's traditional opening. Took the toplever hammer live pigeon gun (damascus barrels, or course...) and had a catridges to game bagged ratio of way too much to not enough; but that's not important.
After a couple of wet years of breeding frenzy, the last 12 months of dry have concentrated them on what water is still about.

Great reports, "mates". Keep posting them from time to time, for us here in the U.S., who must endure six more months until teal season comes back around. How long is your season?

More pics of your ducks and guns, please.

G'day! SRH

The rules on damascus, twist and muzzle loaders seems very sensible. Could do with something like that here so that I could bring a few guns out from retirement. Wildfowling won't start here until 1st. September. Just Goosander under special licence for a few more days and Canada Geese which can be shot all year provided there is eveidence that they are causing damage to crops or animal and human health. Lagopus.....

yes it is a common sense kind of ruling a little bit odd for a government department I like using older guns out hunting they kind of have that been there done that kind of feel although I can't help but feel the ol gun might think its current custodian is a useless shot some days

A Lefever down under! Sweet!! Uncle Dan would be proud :-)

Sweet report and photo of the Lefever and ducks. Makes me wonder, the history of the Lefever and how it made it's way to OZ?

I haven't seen many of the "letter" model Lefever around these parts but there are a lot of Nitro Specials kicking around
locally I know of 3 H grades interestingly the other 2 are steel barreled you don't see them advertised for sale much
I had the chance many years ago to buy an LC Smith I didn't know much about American guns than (still don't!!) I remember it had a nicely engrave dogs head on the sideplates would like to know what model that one was
my H grade appears to be the same as the gun on page 54 of Robert elliots book Uncle Dan Lefever master gunmaker described as a H grade with extra heavy twist barrels mine has the 1907 patent date

G'day mate season runs to the 10th of June which is the Queens Birthday long weekend here
I'll try and get some different pictures over the season of our different ducks and even some of the swamps we are shooting on